Dear campus community,
I am writing to share several developments related to our ongoing effort to engage the community in thought and discussion about free speech and its associated issues.
First, this Thursday, the Berkeley Center for New Media, Graduate Assembly, and BridgeUSA will host a campuswide symposium to mark the 53rd anniversary of the birth of the Free Speech Movement. The event will feature an introduction from Chancellor Carol Christ, a keynote address from Professor Robert Reich, and a full day’s worth of faculty and student panels aimed at critically assessing aspects of free expression in the modern era. All students, faculty, and staff are welcome to attend free of charge.
Additionally, on October 23, Berkeley will host PEN America for an afternoon panel event on the topic of free speech on college campuses. Panelists will include external and internal guests, and the discussion will again be open to the Berkeley community. Details will be posted shortly.
Finally, in an effort to centralize information related to the topic of free speech, the campus recently launched freespeech.berkeley.edu – a site that offers listings of upcoming free speech-related events, a variety of campus perspectives on the issue, resources such as university policies on hosting speakers and protesting safely, and a Q&A section outlining Berkeley’s legal obligations under the First Amendment. We encourage you to explore the site, participate in the “dialogue” section, and submit your free speech-related events to the Berkeley event calendar using the “free speech” tag so that they can be highlighted.
Thank you for your engagement as we continue to examine a subject that is of so much significance to both Berkeley and the nation at large.
Sincerely,
Diana Harvey
Associate Vice Chancellor for Communications and Public Affairs
If you are a manager who supervises UC Berkeley employees without email access, please circulate this information to all.